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Toronto-based Bitstrips gets $3 million investment

Creative collaboration has taken on a whole new meaning for Jacob “Ba” Blackstock.

For years, the Toronto artist and animator had been drawing and trading semi-autobiographical comics with his friends, each colourful pane depicting slightly warped versions of their lives.

Jacob "Ba" Blackstock is the CEO and creative director for Bitstrips, an app where people can express themselves through comics. (Gemma Karstens-Smith)

But when Blackstock and his friends turned their favourite pastime into a mobile app to share with the world, the response was astounding. It turns out that strangers around the globe also loved the idea of starring in their own comics, and jumped at the opportunity to create a graphic version of their lives.

“It just blew up,” said Blackstock, the CEO and creative director of Bitstrips.

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The company released a test version of their iOS mobile app on Oct. 1 and within weeks it was the number one app in the U.S. iTunes store, the number one free app in more than 40 countries, and the number one entertainment app in over 90 countries.

By the end of November, more than 30 million avatars had been created, Blackstock said.

While the sudden uptake was exciting, it created some big engineering problems for the fledgling app.

“It was like we had built this cruise ship that suddenly millions and millions of people were piling into while it was hurtling through the ocean, bursting at the seams,” Blackstock said. “And so we had to start finding engineers to start battening down the hatches and reinforce the hull and rebuild the engines.”

The team added more software gurus to improve the app’s back end and help meet the ever-growing demand, and more artists to make sure users were constantly supplied with new content to play with. From two friends sharing comics via fax machine, the team behind Bitstrips has grown to 17 people, with plans to add more in the near future, Blackstock said.

The app has grown as well, giving people thousands of options to choose from in creating their comics, from hair colour and facial expressions to backgrounds and props. Once perfected, the creations can be shared through text, email, on Facebook or Twitter, or within the Bitstip’s app.

The deal came after the cartoon app caught the eye of Solina Chau, who runs the billionaire’s private technology investment company, Horizons Ventures, Blackstock said. While Chau is one of Forbes 100 most powerful women, she’s also a long-time comic fan and a prolific Bitstrips cartoonist who makes her own cartoons nearly every day, he said.

The money allows the Bitstrips team to focus on growing, engaging with users, and fulfilling their vision of becoming the next tool in people’s social media tool kit, said Blackstock.

“We see Bitstrips as this really visual and personal new way to communicate with and entertain your friends and family. We see it as a new medium for self expression,” he said.

There are plans in the works to monetize Bitstrips in the future, however, though Blackstock declined to elaborate on what those plans entail.

“We’re excited about all the possibilities,” he said.

It seems as though the possibilities of where Bitstrips can go expand even beyond the imaginations of the app’s creators. Blackstock said he’s constantly amazed at the creative ways people use the comics to express themselves. A sound engineer in Queen’s recently sent Blackstock a video where a series of Bitstrips were used to perfectly illustrate a song by hip hop performers Wu Tang Clan.

“He found the right comic for every line of the song. That was really fun to watch.”

Seeing the comics for which he created a platform, is still a bit surreal, for Blackstock, but he’s reveling in sharing his creative endeavour.

“It’s really exciting to take this experience that has meant a lot to me and has brought me a lot of enjoyment, to be sharing that with people all over the world, that’s pretty cool,” he said.

“It’s like we’re engaged in this creative collaboration with millions of people all over the world, which is kind of an unprecedented scale, I think.”

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